"Attention Ships company. Office Chair Games will now begin down on the quayside."
It is unlikely that such an announcement has ever been made on an OM ship before.
However, today saw the arrival of a large consignment of new office chairs and as it was a sunny day, it seemed a good idea to get everyone who was getting a new chair to come out and help to put them together.
So all the old chairs were brought down on the quayside and after some time spent working out how to put all the pieces together, the proud new owners took their chairs back up to their offices.
Yesterday it was a delivery of new computers which are currently being set up and rolled out into offices.
It is amazing that after so many months of struggling to get the things we need, that we have been able to place a whole stack of orders now that we have been given a large loan and gift.
The other big news of the week is that summer has officially arrived here in Kiel. While only 2 weeks ago we were still wearing hats, coats and gloves because of the biting icy wind, not it's shorts and t-shirt weather. What a blessing after such a long, cold winter here in Kiel to have warm, sunny weather.
We really got to enjoy some of it last weekend with our first real ship outing. About 60 of us went to a wild life park about 45 mins away, thanks to the generosity of a local lady. Although the native German animals were a long way removed from the exotic creatures of Edinburh zoo, we all enjoyed the lovely day out in the open air and sunshine.
There was a display of birds of pray that was quite impressive. Another highlight was baking our own bread on sticks over a fire. We even had a couple of spontaneous races - just like Sunday School outings.
We are all busy getting ready for drydock time when many on board will head off in different directions for a few weeks. I am responsible for all the transport logistics and the finances so currently are working hard to finalise arrangements and understand what our costs are going to be. It is always a very expensive time and this recently received loan can not actually be used for these kind of expenses. So we keep praying for finances.
On Saturday we are sailing again - back to our previous berth.
Today I discovered there are a number of webcams that show us here in Kiel, so if you want to watch us move at 8.30pm European Time on Saturday, check out http://www.kielmonitor.de/
